Emuzines

The holiday season has officially begun (in David’s and my opinion, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons begin on November 1)! The next few weeks hold a lot of excitement–a lot of celebrating.

Nik and I head to Amesbury on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. We are SO excited, and have been so for weeks and weeks. It will be Nik’s second time to New England. Seeing as how he was swayed enough by the area last time to hint at wanting a house out there, I know he’ll have a good time again. He also gets to be reunited with my cousin Billy, who he gets along really well with. Good thing Billy is bringing his girlfriend so I’ll still get some Nik time in! And I always have a great time there. It always feels like home. I get to see everybody, relax in Memere and Pepere’s house, and eat Memere’s wonderful food!

The week after we get back to California will be hectic, but with a lot of fun things. Class wraps up that week as well. On Friday, my friends and I are going out to Bistro 33 for our thrice yearly quarter-end celebration. We have developed a tradition of going out–always to Bistro, it seems–at the end of every quarter to celebrate. It’s even more welcome now since we’ve dispersed a bit in terms of classes. I only have classes this quarter with David, Abby, and Kyle. Not enough time to see Maciel, April, and Natalie. Here we are at one of our old quarter end celebrations. This is actually at the end of our first quarter–the bootcamp of the program. We had shots this night. We earned them.

As you can maybe see, the fall quarter quarter end happens to be our gift exchange too. Last year we did a White Elephant, and exchanged and “stole” the gifts. This year, since we know each other so much better, I organized a Secret Santa, and we’re shopping for a specific person. Nik drew names and passed them around.

The next day is our second monthly First Saturday Dinner and a Movie. This one will be chili in bread bowls, cornbread, and apple turnovers made with Memere’s homemade apple jam. We’ll probably watch a holiday movie, but votes on which one are pretty spread around, so I have to tie-break.

Lots of other things are planned–drinks with our stats professor, the Mind Institute Thank You party, etc. Can’t wait!

Last night was the prelim-passing celebration at our old professor’s house. She threw us a very elegant dinner party. We were all so excited to see her house! It was very, very eclectic, but really neat! There were surprises at every turn. Here are a few shots from the night.

This is Maciel in Brenda’s living room, admiring the (ceramic) sheep:

David and I:

The prelim-passers (L to R-Abby, Maciel, me, and David):

Had to include a doggy picture! Here I am with Paris:

Finally, a group dinner shot (L to R-April, David, Kyle, Me, Brenda, Abby, and Maciel):

We had a great time and it was an appreciated celebration. Now…tomorrow is my own dinner party! Wish us luck!

Last night’s party was a huge success!! About 30-35 people showed up, and I think everybody had a really great time. It was a welcome party for the first year students in my department, traditionally hosted by us second year students. Traditionally there is some sort of scavenger hunt or activity–while we didn’t do it last year as the guests, we developed an elaborate activity this year as the hosts. After the first years completed their activity, they joined the party at our house. We had some really great appetizers, food, desserts, and drinks. The house was perfect for the party, and lots of people complemented our fall decorations and the adorable house. Lots of burning candles, lit fire pit, and smells of fall.

The beginning part of the night was pretty low-key with networking, eating, and chatting–a lot of the guests hadn’t yet met. After the first year students left, though, things got a little more interesting. There was a core group of about 10-12 of us who played all sorts of games late into the night. We’re all exhausted today…but we had such a good time that Nik and I are thinking of instituting a monthly dinner and movie at our house. We’ll cook for everyone–David, Abby, April, Natalie, Maciel, and Kyle (our core friend group)–maybe the first Saturday of each month and hang out, have some drinks, and watch a movie. There was a great response to the idea, so now for the arranging. I’ve found that I love to host. Nik was also great at decorating, cleaning, and hosting. Even JoJo was a good girl and gently and calmly accepted pets from everybody. (She did lick the pumpkin pie and steal a piece of cheese, but that’s all she did that was bad!)

Nik and I hadn’t any plans for today. So this morning after coffee we headed out to Vacaville for some lunch and shopping. Then we came home and I got a good chunk of statistics homework out of the way, and we took Jo for a walk. It is so fall-y here, moreso than it ever seems to be in LA. I’m not used to it and I LOVE IT. The sky is gray and the trees are orange, and it’s windy with leaves billowing all around. There are lots of meerkats and ground-burrowing owls on our trail, hunkered down and adorable. We have gone with the feel of the season and the house shows–pumpkins, mulled cider, etc. We finished the night at Pasta downtown, stuffing ourselves with gnocci and fettucini. Now WE are hunkered down in bed and about to watch some Friends episodes.

Tomorrow, we are hosting a big party at our house. It is the traditional welcome party hosted by the second year students in my program, to welcome the first year students. My friends and I had a party to plan the party, and we did some big planning! We are going to have a ton of food, activities, and…drinks. Today I am working from home, and on my breaks I am baking pumpkin pies and pumpkin cookies for the party. The house smells very pumpkiny!

Nik has also been working on the backyard and we have a new firepit, lights, etc. It looks really nice out there and the firepit is great (we tested it last week…). I think that everyone will have a great time–we’re expecting about 30 people. I can’t wait!

So–a nice day. I had class this morning. David, Abby, Kyle and I enjoy ourselves quite a bit for statistics at 8 am. Then I met one of the first year students, Caitlyn, for coffee downtown. I am her peer mentor, but she didn’t need me to mentor much! Just to chat as friends! I’ve also gotten a lot of work done on my own research project. The coding scheme should be ready for action within the next couple of weeks. Off I go to finalize this draft of it, and check on those pies…

We are all moved in and it is lovely!  So comfortable and pretty and…perfect!  I don’t have time to post pictures or elaborate, because I need to finish packing for Denver and Abby is picking me up in 3 1/2 hours, but I will later on.  JoJo has been a champion although she is confused about why we aren’t leaving the house.  She LOVES her backyard and keeps bringing me rosebush branches that I left out there in the planter.  Ouch.  Just now, she looked up at my desk hutch, where I usually keep pictures but now have my school and work bags.  She sat down, and cried.  The final straw…”‘Why is everything different?!’”

But we’re so happy!  Can’t wait to finish setting it all up.

Hi!  Lately, I have been more buried than usual in work and school stuff.  I have a genetics midterm on Monday, which I decided to devote all weekend to getting ready for, so I’ve had to do a lot of work for my other class ahead of time, to clear out the weekend (for fun and excitement, like MAOA, tetO, housekeeping genes, and stuff like that).  Well, this was designed as a post to talk about exciting things, and that was quite sarcastic (although I admit I really do enjoy the genetics of autism), so here are some things I’m excited about:

Nik found this for me: http://www.scrapncube.com/  I doubt I’ll go with that company for a scrapbook area, as it’s really expensive, but I thought it was so sweet that he found it for me!  Once we get a house, my scrapbook stuff will have a home besides shoved into closets and on high shelves out of reach.

CHICAGO!  I wanted to go to IMFAR, an autism conference, but I also really wanted to spend Mother’s Day weekend with…well…my mom!  It happened to fall on that weekend, so I invited my mom along.  We’re extended it into a nice little trip and we already have lots of really, really exciting plans.  We’re going to see Mary Poppins, eat at great restaurants, go to Navy Pier, and go on a dinner cruise.  I am beyond excited.  And I keep forgetting about IMFAR, which is also something that really makes me happy.  Sally says I’ll be presenting there next year, so I better get ready!

LAS VEGAS!  This is coming up really, really soon.  I am going to meet my mom, Aunt Debbie, Memere, and Pepere there, like we have been doing every year for…3 years now?  Nik isn’t going this year, so it’ll be a girl + Pepere week.  Great food, a show, the spa, and Vegasy stuff.  As you can tell, food and good company make me very happy.

HOME!  I am going home in 2 weeks!  It’ll be a very, very short trip, but I’m happy about it.  Mark and I are going to take Noah to the park to feed ducks, I’m going to go out to dinner and a hopefully girly movie/illegal sweets with Gaby, and have breakfast with Melissa.  Should be a nice, quick trip.

VALENTINE’S DAY!  Nik and I cooked in last year, so we’re going out this year.  We wanted to try something new (although, most things are new up here for us, still).  We have reservations at Ruth’s Chris.

DENVER!  This is happening in April.  The primary reason for the trip is another conference, but I’m going with David, Abby, and April.  We’re going to have a lot of fun together!!  I am more than lucky in meeting these friends.

Finally…relaxation…I’m giving myself the night off.  So off I go to eat lasagne and watch a movie!

I was a tad depressed and nervous today for school and work to start up again–I told my officemate Carolyn that I felt like a 2nd grader on her first day of school.  I had a meeting scheduled with Sally today to discuss the work I did for our chapter over break, and to talk about how we’re going to use part of it in our next grant proposal.  She was THRILLED with the work I got done, saying over and over how much it was and how good it was!  I found out, also that she wrote me into the Autism Speaks grant she is applying for.  I, along with one of her postdocs, are going to be the main people on this…and I am so excited!  I hope we get the grant.  It’s a really exciting new project!

I headed over to class after my wonderful meeting with wonderful Sally.  Of course, I was two hours early, and got a parking spot right away.  It was great to see Kyle, David, Abby, and Natalie again.  The class seemed great and the professor is a young, smart- and laid-back-seeming type of guy.  It’s behavioral genetics.  I’m actually pretty excited to start some of this reading.

After class I chatted with my friends, and then we went home, not sure what to do because we’re used to getting out of class late at night!  It is now the most perfect type of drizzly, cup of tea day, and I’m sitting at my brand new laptop, sipping on Coffee Bean Winter Dream tea, watching Jo watch the dryer steam fog outside the window.